Man fights racism in schools after Selma-to-Montgomery march

Donald Williams reflects on what life was like before and after the Selma-to-Montgomery march while at his home in Montgomery on Friday, Feb. 20, 2015.
Shannon Heupel/Advertiser

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Montgomery resident Donald Williams was in the eighth grade when he skipped school to take part in the Selma-to-Montgomery march. The event inspired Williams to make many uncomfortable decisions in order to drive change in Montgomery schools and stand up for his fellow black students.(Photo: Shannon Heupel / Advertiser)Buy Photo

Fifty years have passed since the day Donald Williams' life as an African-American growing up in Montgomery changed forever.

Bringing change has been an uphill battle to overcome entrenched racism and segregation, but he remembers the many victories he had over his lifetime. He hopes to inspire others with his story.

"Things that you do, you don't do for yourself, but you do for everyone who comes behind you," Williams, 65, said. "When you stand up for yourself, you're standing up for all of the people who have been trod over before you and all the people who will come behind you."

The day was March 7 when it all began for Williams. He was just 15 years old.

"Several things occurred that moved me, and one was the assassination of President Kennedy. And when I got to the eighth grade, that is when the march from Selma to Montgomery occurred," Williams said.

Williams lived in the rural Mount Meigs area of Montgomery with his parents, who were educators for black schools. There wasn't an opportunity for Williams to join the marchers in Selma, but he saw them on television at school.

"I looked at my mom, who was my homeroom teacher, and she looked at me in a way to say, 'I'm not going to stand in your way. You do whatever you want to do.' That's all I needed," Williams said.

"Ya'll come on! Let's go!"

Williams and his classmates left their school, Houston Hill Jr. High, and headed toward the Capitol.

"We got to the first corner in downtown, and there were armed National Guardsmen on every corner and they wouldn't let you by, so we had to go through yards and sneak and duck and dodge until we made it all the way down to the Capitol steps," Williams said.

That moment inspired Williams to make many uncomfortable decisions in order to drive change in Montgomery schools and stand up for his fellow black students.

However, life before the march remains a stark reminder of where he came and how far society must go. Williams has certainly paved his own path in history.

Growing up years

His parents were both educators, and Williams started school Sept. 3, 1956, at Georgia Washington Elementary School, a two-story wooden structure built without a bathroom.

"Life then was a lot more complicated than it is now, and there was cotton, cotton. Cotton was everything," Williams recalled. "There were cotton gins, and they still called some men plantation owners and there were sharecroppers who were used for picking cotton."

Williams lived with his family in Mount Meigs along Atlanta Highway.

Friends would come by and count cars as they shelled peas on the front porch.

His father was a praying man, humble and peaceful. He found resolutions. Williams was outspoken. As a child, Williams witnessed firsthand beatings, Ku Klux Klan raids and some of the mistreatment of African-Americans.

"I remember one time I was selling papers — the Montgomery Advertiser was the Alabama Journal, and there were two sets of papers, a white paper and the colored papers. The only difference was the colored papers had two stars and an insert that had news about black people," Williams explained.

"We got the papers one day and there were only ones with stars on them, so you either delivered the papers or you didn't," Williams said. "I delivered this paper to one white gentleman. He ran a store and he cursed me out for everything he could think of. I was just a child."

It was after the historic Selma-to-Montgomery march when changes began to take shape in the school systems. Desegregation of schools was about to go into effect when students were given the choice of what school to attend.

"For the most part, white kids went to white schools and black kids chose black schools, but there was something welling up inside of me to try to go against anything that I wanted, because I wanted to stay at Booker T. Washington with my friends," Williams said.

At that time, there were five black students already attending Sidney Lanier High School, an all-white school at the time. Williams made up his mind he would be the first black student to join the band, and he did.

"Sure enough, in 1966, my brother took me to band tryouts and I met a wee little man who would be my band director," Williams said. "He told me he had too many trombone players, since that is what I played, but that he could sure use a tuba player. I said I'd learn."

They had a deal.

Williams received lessons from the director and eventually made it to the All-State Band playing tuba for Lanier and made many good friendships with the students there, especially with his fellow band members.

"I found that younger people were more open to accepting people and that the things they grew up believing were being dispelled, but at a very slow pace," Williams said. "… People who believed in segregation would taint the minds of a lot of people during that era, but kids are very innocent."

Williams would continue playing in the band once he enrolled at Auburn University, becoming the first black student to join the collegiate band there. At that time, there were only 15 black students among 15,000 white students.

Making a difference

Williams feels blessed to have made a difference in his sphere of influence and hopes it will continue in the generations after him.

"It's amazing to me to see just how far things have come since then, but we still have a ways to go because there is still an element of racism and separatism that exists today," Williams said. "You can see it subtly sometimes, and sometimes you can see it overtly."

"It lets me know God Almighty is still in charge, and things may be moving slow and there may be things that people think are setbacks, but God is going to have his way," Williams said. "All are kin to those who believe in God."

Williams is now retired and lives with his wife of 26 years in east Montgomery.